Chapter 4

Motivation and Global Values

CONSUMER
BEHAVIOR, 10e
Michael Solomon
Learning Objectives
When you finish this chapter you should understand why:
• It’s important for marketers to recognize that products
can satisfy a range of consumer needs.
• The way we evaluate and choose a product depends
upon our degree of involvement with the product, the
marketing message, and/or the purchase situation.
• Our deeply held cultural values dictate the types of
products and services we seek out or avoid.
• Consumers vary in the importance they attach to worldly
possessions, and this orientation in turn has an impact
on their priorities and behaviors.

4-2
The Motivation Process
• Motivation: refers to the process that causes people to
behave as they do.
• Once a need has been activated, a state of tension exists
that drives consumers to reduce or eliminate the need.

• The desired end state is called consumer’s goal (desired

ideal state that provides benefits to satisfy a need).

• A Need is a drive to reduce tension. It represents a gap

(discrepancy) that exists between a person’s present state
and the ideal state.

4-3
The Motivation Process (cont’d)
• The gap between a person’s current and ideal state creates
tension. The magnitude of this tension depends on the size of
this gap (the bigger this gab the higher the tension).
• Normally, consumers seek to reduce this tension (by bridging
the gap). The degree of arousal to do so is called a Drive.
• A need can be satisfied by a number of ways. These ways are
called wants (i.e. a hunger can be satisfied by a number of
ways).
• Learning experience, Personal factors, and culture combine to
determine the types of wants that we use to satisfy our needs.
• Once a goal is attained, tension is reduced and motivation
recedes.

4-4
Motivational Strength
• Motivation can be described in terms of:
A. Its strength: The degree to which a person is willing to
expend energy to reach a goal
B. Its direction: the way a person chooses to reduce tension (to
reach the goal)
Biological Versus Learned Needs
• Drive theory: related to biological needs that produce unpleasant
states of arousal (e.g., hunger). It focuses on biological needs
(innate needs). Person’s behavior is pushed from within.
• Expectancy theory: behavior is pulled by expectations of
achieving desirable outcomes. It focuses on learned needs
(acquired needs that are related to personality and culture).
Person’s behavior is pulled by outside positive incentives.

4-5
What do we need? Types of Needs
• Biogenic: biological (innate) needs that are necessary
to maintain life (i.e. water, food, air, shelter)
• Psychogenic: needs that we acquire as we become
members of a specific culture (i.e. status, power,
affiliation)
• Utilitarian: related to a desire to achieve some
functional or practical benefit, focusing on tangible
attributes of a product.
• Hedonic: related to needs for excitement, self-
confidence, fantasy, fun, pleasure, …etc.

4-6
Motivational Conflicts
• A goal has valence (attractiveness to do or avoid ), which
means that it can be positive or negative. Therefore
• A consumer can approach a positive goal or avoid a
negative goal.
• Consumers often find themselves in situations where
different motives, both positive and negative, conflict with
one another.
• Example: a delicious food, rich in sugar & fat is usually
attractive, but in conflict with a healthy life style.

4-7
Motivational conflicts: three types
1. Approach-approach conflict: a person must choose between two
desirable alternatives such as choosing between two favorite
brands of cars.
2. Approach-avoidance conflict: many products have both negative
and positive consequences attached to them (i.e. having to take a
loan from a bank (undesirable) to buy a new car (desirable). Another
example is being invited on a delicious food, rich in sugar & fat
(attractive), but unhealthy (unattractive).
3. Avoidance-avoidance conflict: a choice between two undesirable
alternatives such as having to spend more on an older car
(undesirable) or spend huge money to buy a newer car
(undesirable).

4-8
Three Types of Motivational Conflicts

• Two desirable alternatives

• you have to choose one and
leave the other

• Positive & negative aspects

of desired product
• Guilt of desire occurs

• Facing a choice with two

undesirable alternatives
• we normally choose the least
undesirable
Figure 4.1 4-9
Example: Specific Needs and Buying Behavior
NEED FOR ACHIEVEMENT
Value personal accomplishment
Place a premium on products
that signify success (luxury
brands, technology products)
NEED FOR POWER
Control one’s environment
Focus on products that allow
them to have mastery over
surroundings (going to key
places where VIPs exist, driving
powerful big cars)
NEED FOR AFFILIATION
Want to be with other people
Focus on products that are used
in groups (i.e. soft drinks in
parties, going to shopping malls)
NEED FOR UNIQUENESS
Assert one’s individual identity
Enjoy products that focus on
their unique character (i.e.
unique cars, perfumes, fancy
clothing, … etc)
4-10
Maslow’s theory: hierarchy of needs
• The theory says that people’s needs are ordered in five levels, and this
order is fixed. Lower order needs must be satisfied before climbing up to
higher level of needs.
• The needs are:
• 1) Physiological.
• 2) Safety.
• 3) Social.
• 4) Esteem.
• 5) Self-actualization.

• Problems with Maslow’s theory:

1) the order of needs is not set in stone. One may reach self
actualization, though still lacking safety (i.e. a world’s dictator).
2) Consumers have different needs’ priorities at different stages of
their life.

4-11
Maslow's theory: Hierarchy of Needs
(one of the important theories of motivation)

4-12
 Consumer Involvement
• Involvement: is perceived relevance (and importance) of an
object based on one’s needs, values, and interests
• Involvement can also be viewed as the motivation to process
information.
• As involvement increases, people:
• devote more attention to ads,
• exert more cognitive effort to understand them, and
• focus their attention on the product information in these ads.
Example: a person who is too attached to laptops (in love with
this product) keeps his eyes on any information related to
laptops, enjoys talking and describing them, makes more
efforts to expand his knowledge of laptops.
4-13
Levels of Involvement: From Inertia to Passion
• The level of information processing depends upon the consumer’s level
of involvement.
• Because a person’s level of involvement is viewed as a continuum,
consumption at the low end of involvement is characterized by inertia.
• At the low level (inertia), decisions are made out of habit as a consumer
lacks information to consider alternatives, and also lacks motivation.
• At the high level of involvement, decisions can be very passionate and
carry greater meaning for a person.
• In this case, the consumer looses track of time as his/her focus and
concentration increase. This level is described as Cult product
(admired product)
• Cult product commands fierce consumer loyalty, devotion, and
commitment.

4-14
Faces of Involvement
• At the broad level, Involvement can be cognitive (focusing on learning and
information) or emotional (focusing on passion).
• Involvement can relate to any of the following three types:
1. Product involvement: related to a particular product (i.e. sales promotions
try increase this involvement. Mass customization can also enhance it).

2. Message-response involvement (or ads involvement): related to

consumer’s interest in processing ads information.
 in extreme case, fans practice Vigilante marketing, where they film their own
commercials for favorable products and post them on Web sites; and Mobile
marketing, where they circulate product information via their cell phones.

3. Purchase-situation involvement: is related to involvement in the buying

occasion itself. It reflects differences in buying motivations when buying the
same product for different occasions (i.e. buying an expensive brand for a
special occasion vs. buying a cheap brand for an unimportant buying
occasion).
4-15
Example:
Measuring Involvement: Involvement Scale

To me, a perfume is:

1. important _:_:_:_:_:_:_ unimportant
2. boring _:_:_:_:_:_:_ interesting
3. relevant _:_:_:_:_:_:_ irrelevant
4. exciting _:_:_:_:_:_:_ unexciting
5. means nothing _:_:_:_:_:_:_ means a lot
6. appealing _:_:_:_:_:_:_ unappealing
7. fascinating _:_:_:_:_:_:_ ordinary
8. worthless _:_:_:_:_:_:_ valuable
9. involving _:_:_:_:_:_:_ uninvolving
10. not needed _:_:_:_:_:_:_ needed

Table 4.1 4-16

Strategies to Increase Involvement
Marketers seek to increase consumer attention to ad
messages by taking the following steps:
 Appeal to consumer’s hedonistic needs

 Use novel stimuli in commercials (i.e. unexpected action)

 Use prominent stimuli in commercials (i.e. loud music, large

ads, colorful images)

 Include celebrity endorsers in commercials

 Build strong bonds with consumers (i.e. improve public

facilities that consumer admire).

4-17
Culture and Consumer Values
 Value: is a belief that some condition is preferable to its
opposite (respecting time of others, being truthful, helping
needy people, self-reliance, … etc).
 Products help consumers attaining value-related goal
 We usually like those people who share with us our values
and beliefs.
 Thus, we tend to be exposed to stimuli (i.e. information) that
support our values and beliefs.
 We also tend to view and judge things through our value
system (our values act as a frame of reference).
 Thus, we tend to interpret (and sometimes twist) information
in a way that supports our values and beliefs.
 Values and beliefs are directly related to culture
4-18
Core values
• Every culture has a set of core values shared by all its members.
• Core values can hardly change. Secondary values may change, but take a
long time.
• In many cases, many values are universal (i.e. freedom, health, honesty,
achievement).
• What sets cultures apart is the relative importance of its values system.
• Every culture is characterized by its members’ endorsement of its values.
• Values (both core and secondary), that uniquely define a culture, are taught
to its members by socialization agents (parents, friends, and teachers, …
etc).
• Socialization is learning cultural values, beliefs and behaviors.
• Enculturation: the process of learning the values, beliefs and behaviors
endorsed by our own culture (learning our culture). Whereas,
• Acculturation: is the process of learning the values, beliefs and behaviors
of another culture (learning others’ culture).

• Creolization occurs when foreign influences integrate with local meanings.

4-19
Culture: unique values and traditions

4-20
Discussion
• How are core values of People in this country
relevant to the following product categories:
• Cars?
• Clothing?
• Higher education?

4-21
How Values link to Consumer Behavior: Hofstede’s Cultural
Dimensions: the most widely used measure of cross-cultural values

Hofstede outlines five cultural dimensions:

1. Power distance: is the extent to which the less powerful
members of organizations and institutions (like the family)
accept and expect that power is distributed unequally.
2. Individualism: more attention is given to the individual than
to the group
3. Masculinity: more attention is given to the issue of Gender
(i.e. more focus on male role than on that of a female, such
as in Saudi Arabia)
4. Uncertainty avoidance: a tendency to avoid uncertainty
5. Long-term orientation: a tendency to focus more on the
Long-run than on the short-run.

4-22
 How Values link to Consumer Behavior:
Rockeach value survey
• The psychologist Rockeach classified values (based on purpose) into
two types:
• Terminal values: desired end-states that apply to many different cultures.
• Instrumental values: actions needed to achieve these terminal values.
• Examples:

Instrumental Value Terminal Value

Ambition A high quality life

Hard work A sense of accomplishment

Donate money Help people (or gain blesses

of Allah)

Table 4.3 (abridged) 4-23

How Values link to Consumer Behavior:
List of values (LOV)
• The “LOV” scale identifies nine consumer segments
based on the values they endorse (and then relates
these values to consumption).
• It relates each value to a particular consumption
behavior.
• Example:
People who value sense of belonging are likely to
appreciate group activities, admire going out with friends,
prefer and respect social visits. They tend to buy the
products that enhance a sense of belonging.

4-24
How Values link to Consumer Behavior:
Means-End Chain Model
• Means-End Chain Model assumes that products are just
means that lead to achieve desired goals.
• Specifically,

Product Product
attributes goals
benefits

• That is, specific product attributes are linked to certain

terminal values through product benefits (means to attain
valued end states). This order is described as
Laddering.
• Laddering: is a consumer’s associations between
specific attributes (Means) and general consequences
(End) 4-25
How Values link to Consumer Behavior:
Values-tracking surveys
• Values-tracking surveys: tracking
changes in values via large-scale
surveys
• These surveys identified a group of
people termed “Voluntary
simplifiers”.
• Voluntary simplifiers: believe that
once basic material needs are
satisfied, additional income does not
add to happiness
• Example: people who move a way
from materialism, donate money,
spend more time with their families,
appreciate social gatherings, …etc.).
• What is Materialism? See next slide
4-26
Materialism
• Materialism: refers to the importance people attach to
worldly possessions (most western societies are highly
materialistic)
• Materialists are more likely to value material possessions
for their own status, prestige, and appearance-related
meanings. (i.e. conspicuous consumption)
• Non-materialists: value possessions that connect them to
other people or provide them with pleasure in using them
to reach desirable goals). Examples may include
Voluntary simplifiers.

4-27
 Conscientious Consumerism
• Conscientious consumerism is a focus on
personal health merging with a growing interest
in global health

• LOHAS (lifestyles of health and sustainability).

• People adopting this lifestyle are likely to:
• Worry about the environment
• Want products to be produced in a sustainable way

• Greenwashing is mistrusting all green claims

made by marketers. In some cases, consumers
avoid brands that promise they are green.

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education 4-28